Legislators take a mulligan

By David Rauf, Austin Bureau

Updated 12:24 pm, Wednesday, April 24, 2013

AUSTIN — The Texas House on Tuesday stuck a fork in the state lottery commission, then resuscitated the agency hours later, realizing that dissolving it would create an unwieldy budget gap for schools and charities that depend on their cut.

It created high drama, as lawmakers stunned many in the House by voting against a bill to ensure the Texas Lottery Commission continues operating for the next 12 years.

“The lottery commission is gone,” state Rep. Linda Harper Brown, R-Irving, declared from the dais after the House voted 65-81 against a sunset bill to continue the commission.

Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, was one of four Democrats who switched their votes after a lunch-break lobbying session. He said he didn't originally understand “the financial shock to the system would be too much” if the House killed off the lottery commission without a contingency plan.

“I wasn't expecting to be joined by a majority of my colleagues,” Villarreal said of his original vote to abolish the commission. “When I woke up this morning, I wasn't planning on shutting down the lottery system.”

Led by House Republicans, the vote to abolish the commission instantly jeopardized the future of the state lottery as well as scratch-off tickets and charity bingo.

It also put in limbo revenues used to fund state services, including some $2.2 billion dedicated for schools over the biennium.

“Any interruption of a revenue stream that helps fund public schools in Texas has a negative impact on schools and children,” Northside Independent School District spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said.

Within hours — and after some serious behind-the-scenes lobbying by House leaders — lawmakers returned from a lunch break and decided to bring the bill back to the floor for more debate.

With little fanfare, the House voted again late Tuesday afternoon to reverse itself and resurrect the lottery commission, tentatively passing a measure that allows the commission to continue operating. The bill still needs to clear a final reading Wednesday.

“We began talking to people about their options on filling a $2.2 billion hole in the public education budget,” said state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, who authored the bill to sunset the lottery commission. “That was going to be cutting the public school budget or raising taxes. Neither of which seemed like palatable options.

“I think when people took a sober look at the budget dilemma that would ensue, they voted differently.”

Bingo games have been a staple of fundraising for San Antonio's St. Gerard Catholic High School, generating as much as $15,000, according to Maurice “BC” Abadie, development director.

“It's part of our annual budget, and in our situation, any type of fundraising is important to us,” Abadie said, noting the East Side school of 110 students has struggled financially and receives a subsidy from the Archdiocese of San Antonio. “We need every bit of income we can get our hands on.”

Anchia's House Bill 2197 was supposed to be a routine sunset measure — one in which legislative action is required in order for a certain laws to continue enacted. Instead, it sparked a spirited debate about whether the lottery unfairly preys on the poor and gave observers their first view of infighting in the House this session.

At one point during the debate, state Rep. Scott Sanford, R-McKinney, called the lottery a “predatory tax” and “a tax on poor people.”

On Twitter, state Rep. Steve Toth, R-Houston, echoed those sentiments: “This was nothing more than a tax on the poor,” he said of the lottery.

After the second vote, Toth tweeted: “Money talks & principal goes by the way side. On 2nd reading, 30 people fold and the Lotto survives. We will continue to take from the poor.”

Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, protested the idea of plucking billions from public education, saying proceeding with the budget as written would be like “dealing with Monopoly money” without the $2.2 billion expected from lottery ticket sales.

And an angry Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, asked if the $2 billion in lost revenue could “come out of the districts” whose representatives voted to spike the lottery sunset bill.

“The House is a mercurial place. There are a lot of surprises in the House, and this was one of them,” Anchia said. “There were more members than I thought who were against the lottery.”

“I'm not happy about it,” Benson said of the push to undo the lottery commission.

The post relies on bingo for much-needed income. It's in the process of renewing its bingo license with the state, Benson said.

“Most of the veteran organizations are struggling to make ends meet. We are struggling to maintain a particular level. If we start losing our fundraising sources, we'll have to start doing something else,” he said.

At the Frio City Food Mart, where a $1 million winning Powerball ticket was sold last year, manager Hussein Rajab said his store thrives off of the lottery. Ticket sales have doubled — to about $50,000 a month — since the jackpot win, he said.

On a good weekend, he sells about $2,000 in tickets, he said, and lottery players often buy other items.

“I'm so happy; the lottery brings in a lot of customers,” he said of news that the vote was reversed.

For stores that haven't seen headline-making wins, ticket sales can be a burden. Ravi Kandala, a clerk at Pik Nik Foods on South Presa Street, said he wouldn't mind seeing the end of the Texas Lottery.

“It kills some of our time,” Kandala said. “Sometimes there's a long line and customers get irritated. The people who buy tickets ask for the numbers on each lottery ticket, or try to find their lucky numbers.”

While the store sells some tickets, he said, “we don't get much profit from that.”